EC did not lift the ban on Azam Khan while Amit Shah was given permission to campaign, said Mulayam.

9:40pm: Congress candidate Pallam Raju files nomination from Kakinada LS seat; said the Congress was the only party to launch development initiative for the welfare of minorities and the weaker sections of society.

9:20 pm: Senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said terrorism, unemployment and price rise would end if BJP formed the next government in the country.

9:08 pm: Congress plans to go in for the search of new allies to form a UPA-III government and has no intention to support a Third Front government. READ FULL STORY

8.15 pm: Actor-turned-AAP candidate from Chandigarh Gul Panag today campaigned in favour of her party’s Amritsar nominee Daljit Singh, and exhorted the people to cast their votes in favour of AAP to “get rid” of SAD, BJP and Congress.

Spent the day campaigning in Assam & Bihar. People’s determination to punish UPA is becoming stronger day by day! pic.twitter.com/jfwEdAjxdd

7.39 pm: As part of the Election Commission’s efforts to ensure smooth, free and fair elections
in the state, the Deputy Election Commissioner Alok Shukla would review the poll arrangements in Punjab tomorrow.

7.35 pm: The Election Commission of India today refused to be drawn into a controversy over allegations levelled by the Samajwadi Party that the poll watchdog was “biased” towards the BJP.

7.10 pm: Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav today alleged that the Election Commission was discriminating with SP as it had not lifted the ban on campaigning of state minister Mohd Azam Khan while BJP UP in charge Amit Shah was given permission to campaign.

6.50 pm: Raising his pitch for active participation of voters in elections, BJP patriarch LK Advani today appealed to the Election Commission to consider debarring those voters from exercising their right to franchise who have failed to cast their vote in previous polls.

6.40 pm: The BJP’s claim that it would come to power at the Centre replacing the Congress was because of the latter’s “anti-people policies”, Mamata Banerjee said today and reiterated that no government in Delhi could be formed without the TMC.

6.20 pm:Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal will tomorrow hold a road show in Amethi where the party has fielded Kumar Vishwas against Congress vice president and sitting MP Rahul Gandhi.

6.15 pm: Senior CPI leader D Raja today wondered why the AIADMK and the DMK were not attacking the “communal policy” of BJP and instead only criticising Narendra Modi on the Gujarat model of development.

6.05 pm: The Election Commission today came out with the final polling figures for the seven Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar that had gone to polls on Thursday, revising the voting percentage downward to 51.39 per cent from 54.04 per cent declared provisionally.

5.30 pm: Concerned over “growing attacks” on its workers and party offices in West Bengal, CPI(M) today asked the Election Commission to take urgent steps to ensure free and fair polls and alleged that a “rattled” Trinamool Congress was spinning “a web of conspiracy theories” to justify “its violence”.

I urge you all to vote against BJP-Congress-CPI(M) on 24th April. Ensure their political annihilation: Trinamool Chairperson at Englishbazar

5.25 pm: Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy today said the fight in the Lok Sabha elections has narrowed between Congress and BJP, each representing different ideologies.

5.15 pm: Over seventy per cent voting was recorded in Arunachal Pradesh during re-polling conducted in 34 polling stations across the state today.

5.10 pm: An elderly person, who was allegedly kidnapped and forced to file nomination from Hajipur as Ram Vilas Paswan to confuse the voters, today met the LJP president and narrated his woes.

5.00 pm: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today accused the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi of instigating people to divide the country like the British.

4.45 pm: Countering Narendra Modi’s attack on graft issue, Sonia Gandhi today said those levelling allegations against Congress were “neck-deep” in corruption and challenged BJP to tell what action its governments in states had taken to punish the people involved in scams.

4.28 pm: Repolling will take place at three polling booths in Barmer and one in Churu constituency for Lok Sabha elections in the state on April 21.

2:44 pm: “I challenge the BJP government and ask them what steps have they taken to tackle corruption. BJP has the habit of leveling allegations against us every day,” says Sonia.

2:44 pm: We will ensure youth get employment here, says Sonia.

2:43 pm: “If we come to power again 40, 000 farmers will stand to benefit,” says Sonia.

2:41 pm: “I am happy that in Amethi you have always voted for the Congress and despite problems you have voted for us,” says Sonia Gandhi.

2:40 pm: Sonia Gandhi addresses a rally in Amethi.

2:30 pm: A day after the PMO sought to counter the perception that Manmohan Singh has been “weak” in his tenure, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley today taking potshots at him said the Prime Minister “walked on snow, but did not leave any footprints”.

2:17 pm: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today questioned the secrecy behind the move and asked the hardline separatist leader to identify the pointmen to establish who was “lying”.

2:10 pm: Giving away farm land at throwaway prices to an industrialist who made enormous profits selling it was the much touted Gujarat model of Narendra Modi, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi alleged today.

2:09 pm: “Where does secularism come into the picture when I talk about saving Rhinos? But the Congress will still raise the secularism issue,” says Modi.

2:07 pm: “Now during the interim budget, the Congress has again announced Rs 1000 crore for the Nirbhaya fund,” says Modi.

2:06 pm: “It’s a heartless government. Out of Rs 1000 crore, the Congress has not spent a single penny to ensure safety for women in a year. Is this women empowerment? asks Modi.

2:04 pm: “Its a mother-son government in India. Congress needs to answer why people misbehave with people from the northeast? People kill Northeast people in Delhi,” says Modi

1:57 pm: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today refuted his Tamil Nadu counterpart Jayalalithaa’s allegations that his government was not releasing Cauvery water and asserted that water is being released as per the Supreme Court guidelines.

1:49 pm: Narendra Modi today hit out at Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over the claims made in a book by the Prime Minister’s former aide, saying the mother and son would have to pay the “price” for running the UPA government from behind the scene.

1:19 pm: Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and President of Jai Samaikyaandhra Party, Kiran Kumar Reddy, has opted out of the contest in the May seven elections in the state.

1:04 pm: Congress leader Ajay Singh has said while BJP harps on just one leader, his party talks about the entire country.

12:50 pm: The poll percentage of the April-17 second phase elections in Jharkhand has been revised to 63.45 per cent from 62 per cent announced on the polling day.

12:43 pm: A surrendered ULFA militant, a former governor, a powerful state minister and a sitting MP -the electoral fight for Assam’s troubled Kokrajhar, a melting pot of conflicts between Bodos and non-Bodos, was never more intense and engrossing than this time.

12:40 pm: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s vision is “limited to balloons and toffees” and his only USP in politics is that he “belongs to the Gandhi family”, says Chhattisgarh’s Chief Minister Raman Singh.

12:08 pm: The country is feeling that the most corrupt government is UPA I and II government, says Amit Shah.

12:03 pm: Amit Shah addresses the media on BJP’s UP mission.

12:00 pm: Rahul Gandhi addresses a rally in Nagaon, Assam.

11:59 am: At a time when the Dravidian majors, AIADMK and DMK, are campaigning intensely in as many ways as possible, including roping in film stars, the Congress campaign is lacklustre in Tamil Nadu as the party is bereft of allies and its candidates short of funds to run the show.

11:37 am: Having a diverse set of politically active communities, Patan Lok Sabha constituency is known to set the mood and inclination of voters for other seats in North Gujarat, where a neck-to-neck contest is expected between the Congress and BJP.

11:01 am: Forty-two candidates are in the fray from Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency, which has always witnessed maximum number of contestants for general elections.

10:20 am: Tamil Nadu has witnessed a marginal decrease in the number of independents taking the poll plunge in the April 24 Lok Sabha elections with 507 trying their luck as against 527 in 2009.